Married... with Children
Married... with Children was a FOX network sitcom created by Michael G. Moye & Ron Leavitt, starring Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, David Faustino, Ted McGinley, Amanda Bearse and David Garrison. The show aired from April 5, 1987 to June 9, 1997, lasting for 11 seasons and 262 episodes. Synopsis The show focused on the dysfunctional Bundy family (featuring Al & Peggy and their two children: Kelly and Bud) living in the suburbs in Chicago. Cast *Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy *Katey Sagal as Peggy Bundy *Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy *David Faustino as Bud Bundy *Amanda Bearse as Marcy Rhoades D'Arcy *David Garrison as Steve Rhoades 1-4 *Ted McGinley as Jefferson D'Arcy 6-11 Ratings Despite the show's enduring popularity and loyal fanbase, "Married ... with Children" was never a huge ratings success. Part of the reason was the simple fact that Fox, being a new startup network, did not have the affiliate base of the "Big Three" television networks, thus preventing the series from reaching the entire country. In an interview for a special commemorating the series' 20-year anniversary in 2007, actress Katey Sagal stated that part of the problem the series faced was that many areas of the country were able to get Fox only through low-quality UHF channels well into the early 1990s while some areas of the country did not receive the new network at all, a problem not largely rectified until the 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment which brought the NFC football rights to the network. Another problem lay in the fact that many of the newly developed series on Fox were unsuccessful, which kept the network from building a popular lineup to draw in a larger audience. In its original airing debut, "Married ... with Children" was part of a Sunday lineup that competed with the popular Murder, She Wrote and a Sunday-night movie on CBS. Fellow freshman series included "The Garry Shandling Show", "Duet" and "The Tracey Ullman Show" which were canceled in 1988, 1989, and 1990 respectively. The success of "The Simpsons" (which debuted on "The Tracey Ullman Show]" in 1987) helped draw some viewers over to Fox, allowing "Married ... with Children" to sneak into the top 50 of television shows for seasons 3 through 9 doing its best overall rating at number 8 for its third and tenth season. Although these ratings were somewhat small in comparison with the other three networks, they were good enough for Fox to keep renewing the show. *1986–1987\Season 1: #142 *1987–1988\Season 2: #116 (4.70 rating) *1988–1989\Season 3: #48 (10.45 rating) *1989–1990\Season 4: #50 (10.12 rating) *1990–1991\Season 5: #30 (13.00 rating) *1991–1992\Season 6: #29 (13.36 rating) *1992–1993\Season 7: #37 (11.97 rating) *1993–1994\Season 8: #46 (10.77 rating) *1994–1995\Season 9: #49 (10.10 rating) *1995–1996\Season 10: #56 (9.20 rating) *1996–1997\Season 11: #63 (8.70 rating) Controversy In 1989, Terry Rakolta from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan led a boycott of the show after viewing the episode "Her Cups Runneth Over". Offended by the images of an old man wearing a woman's garter and stockings, the scene where Steve touches the pasties of a mannequin dressed in S&M gear, a homosexual man wearing a tiara on his head (and Al's line "...and they wonder why we call them queens"), and a half-nude woman who takes off her bra in front of Al (and is shown with her arms covering her bare chest in the next shot), Rakolta began a letter-writing campaign to advertisers, demanding they boycott the show. After advertisers began dropping their support for the show and whilst Rakolta made several appearances on television talk shows demanding the show's cancellation, Fox executives refused to air the episode titled "I'll See You in Court" which would become known as the "Lost Episode" and was aired on the FX network on June 18, 2002 with some parts cut. The episode was packaged with the rest of the third season in the January 2005 DVD release (and in the first volume of the ""Married ... With Children Most Outrageous Episode" DVD set) with the parts cut from syndication restored. Ironically, viewers' curiosity over the show's boycott and over the show itself led to a drastic ratings boost in an example of the "Streisand Effect" which Rakolta has since acknowledged. She has been referenced twice on the show: "Rock and Roll Girl" when a newscaster mentioned the city Bloomfield Hills, and "No Pot to Pease In" when a television show was made about the Bundy family and then was cancelled because (according to Marcy) "some woman in Michigan didn't like it". The conservative Parents Television Council named "Married... with Children" the worst show of both the 1995–96 and the 1996–97 television seasons in its first two years in operation. In 1996, the organization called the show the "crudest comedy on prime time television...peppered with lewd punch lines about sex, masturbation, the gay lifestyle, and the lead character's fondness for pornographic magazines and strip clubs." Category:FOX Shows Category:1980s television shows Category:1990s television shows Category:Comedy Category:Sitcoms